Around the Township.

Tomorrow, Thursday, October 6, we go to the polls to elect our provincial government. For some, it seems to have been an election that has garnered little interest…although some sources indicate it has been heating up in the last couple of days. Be sure to exercise your right to vote and choose the person you most feel will represent us the best. What is that term the kids use in their chats…oh yeah…lol. It stands for something like ‘laughing out loud’.

My gosh the days are getting shorter, aren’t they. Monday, the alarm went, and I was sure (completely and positively sure) something had gone wrong with the clock. In fact, with eyes still closed and curled up in the warmth of the comforter, I informed the hubby “there had to be something wrong with the clock.” It was still dark outside and there was no way it was time to get up. A quick trip to the kitchen to check the clock there finally convinced us. Why even the animals weren’t yet up and going, and for sure the cat is always ready for her breakfast as soon as the first alarm sounds. If we don’t move fast enough, she usually hits the bed and perches impatiently on a pillow above our heads until we do get going.

This weekend many of our young folks return home for Thanksgiving, (generally their first good meal since they left for school way back at the start of September) and for the graduation exercises at ‘dear old’ Seaway High on Friday night.

That being said, it’s time to talk turkey. Roast turkey with all the fixings. Better yet, roast turkey with all the fixins and some pumpkin pie. Just a few thousand calories, but who’s counting. Following Thanksgiving, we have 74 days to work off a few pounds before the next big turkey time, with all the fixins, that takes place in late December. That’s right just 74 days until Christmas. Can you believe it?

That means we have to get going…squeeze in those last few games of golf, clear out the flower beds, put away the garden furniture, complete the fall house cleaning and re-hang the Christmas lights. And for some of us there is a lot of juggling as we are knee-deep in hockey and curling and all of our favourite winter activities.

Where does the time go. Any wonder we don’t believe the alarm clock when it sounds off to tell us it is time to get up. lol…..

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Well it’s all over for another year. Summer leaves today and fall arrives, but that’s okay. It’s time to enjoy our always colourful and spectacular autumn season, enjoy a break for a Thanksgiving get together and settle into our winter sports.

Coming up this Saturday, September 24, is the much-anticipated and long-awaited South Dundas Community playground build. A lot of people have worked very hard on this project and a lot of community-minded residents have thrown their support behind it to raise a whopping amount of money. Saturday, it will all come to fruition with the actual build.

For those who are heading down to the Earl Baker Park on Saturday to help with the build or just to check it all out, the group responsible for the Earl Baker Park gardens at the northwest corner of the park are looking for some perennials that will enable them to switch the gardens from annual plantings. If you are dividing or digging perennials of any sort….peonies, daisies, irises, phlox, back-eyed Susans, cone flowers and on and on, you are invited to share your beauties with the community in the park gardens. Plants can be dropped off for planting anytime after 8 a.m. The location of the gardens is full sun, so perennials that would do well in these conditions are welcome.

Also coming up this Saturday is the 20th annual Fall Festival at Williamsburg. The event runs Friday and Saturday, and everyone is invited to come out and enjoy fall fun at its finest. As always the popular fall parade will highlight Saturday’s activities at noon and all of the popular events from past festivals are returning. The entire village is to be decorated in a Hillbilly Fall Theme.

On Sunday, the community is invited to participate in the Homes on the St. Lawrence House Tour 2011, organized as a fund raiser by the Park Pals Committee for the South Dundas Off-Leash Dog Park located in Morrisburg. Advance tickets at $20 each can be purchased at Mustard’s Variety in Iroquois and Cardinal Flowers in Morrisburg. For more information on the house tour see the story that appears on page 3.

Bryan Shaver and the Easter Seals Ball Hockey tournament are now looking for teams for this year’s event scheduled for Saturday, October 15 at the outdoor rink in Williamsburg. This is the 10th annual ball hockey tournament which raises some very important funds for Easters Seals children and youth who live in Dundas county. The ball hockey teams are made up of both fellas and gals and prizes are up for grabs for the top pledge getters. Funds raised provide transportation, communications equipment, camp experiences and much more for local kids.

There was a sense of anticipation as we waited for the new Premier to be selected by the Liberal party.

This process was initiated by the former Premier Dalton McGuinty, as he tried to quiet the outcry over two gas power plants that were cancelled to retain four Liberal seats in the 2011 election and the following cover-up of the cost.

Now eleven months after taking over as Premier, we are yet to see Kathleen Wynne table any legislation that would reduce the regulatory and financial burden that is making our businesses uncompetitive.

Instead, we have witnessed her office under an OPP investigation triggered by the Privacy Commissioner’s report into the illegal deletion of sensitive government records.

While her government initiated dozens of feel-good bills designed solely to attract good press, 600,000 Ontarians are still out of work. In a province with the best-qualified workforce in North America, this is an unacceptable waste.

The Auditor-General’s team was also busy fulfilling their role as the financial watchdog of the Province.

Their first two Special Reports detailed how actions taken by the Liberal government to keep the true cost of the cancelled power plants hidden, unnecessarily drove the bill up by hundreds of millions of dollars to more than $1.1 billion.

The third special report confirmed that the sale of Ontario Northland will cost the taxpayer $800 million rather than saving $200 million as claimed by the Liberals.

In her Annual Report, Auditor-General Bonnie Lysyk highlighted numerous examples of waste and lack of oversight, including the excessive executive compensation and murky hiring practices at Ontario Power Generation.

The scale of waste perpetrated by the present Government is now undeniable, and urgent action is needed.

Our prosperity rests with a healthy private sector that generates wealth and jobs.

Unfortunately, 2013 saw many plant closures, such as Heinz, Kellogg’s, and Novartis. The Government knew of the problems faced by job-creators in Ontario as they were informed by Heinz’s and others’ in the spring.

Since Kathleen Wynne became premier, over 38,000 net manufacturing jobs have left our province.

My fellow PC Caucus members and I have been reminding them daily that high energy costs and over-regulation have made us uncompetitive.

We need to make tough decisions in order to secure our future and this Liberal government is just not up to it.

We need a government that will rise to this challenge and bring Ontario the prosperity needed to protect our health care and our quality of life.

On a more local level, I was able to hear from a large number of residents and the business community at events throughout the year or in our office when they needed help dealing with the provincial government.

Our PC leader, Tim Hudak, was in the riding to meet with residents and stakeholders in the agricultural, health care and construction industries.

Vic Fedeli, our energy critic, also toured a number of locations, addressing concerns over the skyrocketing electricity rates, now forecast to rise another 42% over the next five years.

I also tabled three bills to address problems raised by small businesses and municipalities on the Technical Standards and Safety Authority (TSSA), labour relations issues, and under my new critic role for Municipal Affairs and Housing, a bill to revise the Municipal Elections Act.

Our Caucus also continued to release our policy White Papers that detail the action a PC Government would take to create jobs and secure the public services we all treasure.

The opportunities I had to meet the wonderful people of Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry at the many festivals and social events, including the special activities to celebrate the area’s historic War of 1812 battles and the remarkable contributions of the Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders, made 2013 a very busy and very rewarding year.

It has been a very challenging year for the province as a whole, as well for many Ontarians and local communities.

I remain optimistic that we can do better and that the future can be bright if we take the right action. It will require some tough decisions that are made for the benefit of all, and you should accept no less.

In closing, as your proud representative of provincial government, I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and the Very Best in 2014.